Brockton school officials defend handling of rape

Sunday

Mar 23, 2014 at 12:01 AMMar 23, 2014 at 10:24 AM

Some parents are upset they were not notified about the incident behind the Raymond School

BROCKTON – Police acted fast when they learned about the rape near a Brockton school, arresting and removing a teenage suspect from the Oscar F. Raymond School within days of the March 6 incident.Two weeks later, however, school officials still had not notified the public about the incident, in which a 16-year-old is accused of assaulting and raping a 14-year-old girl on a wooded path off school grounds.

Now, as school officials defend the decision to withhold the information, some parents are questioning why the incident wasn’t brought to light until a Brockton police report last week.

“You would think they’d tell us something like this,” said Rosa Pires, who has three children at the Raymond School. “If your child does something bad, they’re quick to call you, but stuff like this you don’t hear about.”

The incident underscores the dilemma many school administrators face when dealing with serious incidents involving students. Not only must they decide whether to alert the public, but they must weigh the move against violating the privacy of their students, said Tom Scott, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of Superintendents.

Parental notification, Scott said, is not a matter that comes with clearly defined guidelines.

Brockton Superintendent Kathleen Smith defended her decision not to notify parents last week, saying, “There was no threat to the public, no threat to the school and there was no threat to any other individual in the school.”

Mayor Bill Carpenter, as well as several members of the Brockton School Committee, said they support Smith’s decision to protect the privacy of the victim instead of broadcasting the news to the public, which they say could have possibly identified the student.

“These aren’t easy decisions, and I understand if someone could view the decision differently. I don’t blame any parent who has a concern,” said Carpenter.

Brockton is not alone in facing this dilemma.

Before deciding to communicate news of a serious incident to parents, administrators typically refer to safety officials as well as the department’s legal counsel to determine what and how much information can be revealed and when, said Derek Swenson, assistant superintendent for Bridgewater-Raynham Public Schools, a district of more than 5,000 students.

“You want to make sure you have the story straight and not breaching confidentiality,” he said. “You also want to protect students and keep them safe without creating anxiety in the community.”

When an incident occurs off school grounds, or before and after school hours, a superintendent often defers to police, he added.

“Unless it’s truly a safety issue in our buildings, it’s usually kind of out of our jurisdiction,” Swenson said.

Smith’s response in the incident at the Raymond School, which has 1,075 students, was unlike that of her swift decision to alert staff and parents at the Arnone School, where traces of a white powdery drug were found in a faculty bathroom. In neither case did Smith’s office notify the media.

“Arnone was a no-brainer, but this was a very tough judgment call to make,” said Ward 1 School Committee member Tom Minichiello. “In order to protect the identity and confidentiality of the alleged victim (at the Raymond School), the difficult decision was made not to notify parents. She put a lot of thought into what she was going to do.”

Ward 7 committee member Raymond Henningson agreed.

“On sensitive issues such as this incident, which did not happen on school grounds, I do not think parental notification was necessary,” he said.

But though it is crucial for school officials to protect a student’s identity, it is equally as important to weigh the safety of the community, said City Councilor-at-large Shaynah Barnes.

“It’s a slippery slope because that kid is potentially dangerous,” she said about the 16-year-old accused of rape. “With sex offenders, you can find out who they are, and where they are. With children, it’s a little different.”

Parents such as Pires said they would have benefited from knowing.

In cases of serious incidents that occur near a school, Leanne Benoit, vice president for the Kennedy School Parent Teacher Association in Brockton, also said informing parents is a must.

“I definitely think if something like that happens close enough to a school, though not directly at the school, I agree that they should send some type of communication home,” she said.

Laura Bernard, whose children are in kindergarten and third grade at the Raymond School, offered a different perspective, saying the isolated incident affected a small number of people.

“They should let parents know about things like transportation and head lice, but the younger kids and the older students don’t crisscross,” she said.

The Raymond School serves students from kindergarten through Grade 8, but in separate buildings.